Rise of the Dark Lord
by WolfSlayerMage
Summary: Witch-boy an orphan in Nordberg will grow up to be the Overlord. This is a story about him, his minions and the women that help him conquer the world! Evil always finds a way! My story on the events in Overlord 2. Rated M because i have a dirty mind and will use it. I have dyslexia so sorry for any spelling mistakes.
1. There was a Beginning

It was midwinters eve in the town of Nordberg and the town was a buzz with excitement as everyone was getting ready for the festivities later that night, but on the outskirts of town in an old run down shed the child know as Witch boy sat all alone. Witch boy wasn't his real name it was just what the villagers called him due to his blue skin and glowing eyes, a sign of strong magic, he didn't know his real name as he had been abandoned at the town gate when he was two years old, that had been 3 years ago now.

He sensed someone approaching before he heard them, he pulled his hood up to cover his face; he knew who it was but still didn't want to show his face. "Witch boy you there?" asked a girls voice, the door creaked open as Kelda came in to the shed. Witch boy glanced at her as she walked in, she was the same age as him and her fire red hair seamed to glow in the dark as she looked round for him. She was the only one in the village that was nice to him often bring him food and clothes. She spotted him and smiled "There you are. I brought you some food for midwinter." She said, shutting the door Kelda sat next to him putting a basket of food down. He didn't say anything to her, just looked at her, the smile never fading from her face. "So Witch boy, how have you been? Have you been keeping warm?" she asked. Unlike when other called him that he felt warmth and kindness coming from her, almost like it was a nickname friends give each other. "I have been fine" he responded, she smiled again at hearing his voice and got something out of the basket and handed it to him. "Here it's a scarf," she said as he looked at the red cloth in his hands, "I think you will look good in it". She reached for his hood but he grabbed her arm to stop her, "Its okay," she assured him "the way you look doesn't bother me" he lowered her arm and then slowly pulled his hood down. He could feel her eyes looking at his blue skin and all the strange markings on it as he rapped the scarf around himself and pulled it up over his mouth and nose then put his hood back in place, so now all you could see were his glowing eyes peering out from under it. "See I knew it would suit you." Kelda said, he was about to thank her when he sensed something new but strangely familiar out side in the woods. His head turned to look where the presence was coming from, he then heard Kelda getting up and looked back at her, "Well I need to go help finish setting up. I will see you tonight Witch boy." She said heading to the door. "Thanks." Witch boy said as she left, she looked back and smiled at him then left back to town. Now he was alone again he let his magic spread out a bit to try to find that strange thing again, after a few minutes of trying he found it but this time there was three of them, right at the edge of the woods near his shed, he felt a small tingling through his body up to his brain _"Master?"_ he jumped up having heard that in his head, he rushed outside to where they were and stop when he saw three sets of glowing eyes staring at him from the shadow of the trees.

It was almost evening time in Nordberg and the midwinters eve festival was about to start. Kelda put the last of the food on the table in the center of town and looked round. All the houses had different colored lights placed round them, the trees in the town were decorated with cloths that were all the colors of the rainbow, lanterns and bunting hung from house to house and across the town center and she could see the adults getting the fireworks ready. With all her jobs done Kelda headed home to get ready, she couldn't wait for the fun her and Witch-boy were going to have, it was one of the few times she could play with him as long as she wanted as her parents were to busy drinking to notice. she ran straight to her room and started to put on her new clothes, a blue wool dress and coat to match, as she looked at her coat its blue color reminded her of witch-boy's skin. Kelda wondered how he had gotten skin like that covered in pretty pattens, her dad said it was the sign of very old and power full magic and that she had to stay way, like she was going to do that she liked witch-boy he was her friend. Now that she was ready she looked out her window and saw all the lights dancing in the night, it was a beautiful night, then she heard them passing by. Bill and his gang, the other kids in town 6 years old and under, "okay, does everyone remember what they have to do?" asked Bill the oldest boy, "Yes" said one of the girls "we have to hit him with lots of snowballs" the whole gang laugh and raced off towards the outskirts of town and Witch-boy. Getting mad Kelda rushed to get her boots on before running out the door to follow them, 'they are always picking on Witch-boy' she thought 'and today is the day i stop them, no one had beaten her in a fight yet'.

Kelda ran through the town's south gate, past Nev who was sat by the gate drinking, as she got a little way down the road she heard screams from the other kids up ahead. the next thing she saw was Bill and his gang running back to town,but insted of going to town they ran down a small path towards their fort that they had built. "Master bash good!" said a strange growling voice behind her, she turned round and saw Witch-boy stood surrounded by some strange brown creatures. They were the same size as a child, with thin but musicale arms and legs, they were wearing a fur loin-cloths and holding a club in one hand. Their round heads which were stooping forward had long pointy floppy ears and big yellow eyes, they looked at Witch-boy as if they were seeing their god in person. After looking at these strange demon creatures she looked to Witch-boy for some sort of explanation, she noticed his eyes were glowing brighter, "What...what are these things? What's going on?" she asked. "They're minions...my minions, they do what I say at least, they say they have been looking for me for years I am their master" He told her getting more excited then she had seen him ever. She looked him in his eyes and saw a spark of mischief there and knew that this was going to be a fun time. "Lets head to town the festival is going to start soon" Kelda said, Witch-boy looked at the minions around him "You sure?" he asked, "Yes this is going to be good just think what we can get up to with your demons" she said. they set off back to town, the minions following behind, when they got to the gate it was closed and Nev was leaning on it "Stop right there. Your not coming in *hic* I have *hic* order," Nev slurred drunkenly "No Witch-boy's, with your funny eyes" he look passed Witch-boy and Kelda spotting the minions, "and no demons *hic* be off with you now and stop that wobbling about you trying to make old Nev sick". Kelda look back at Witch-boy and the minions, it was true even if the towns folk let him in the minions were defiantly not human, she though about what they could do, Nev was drunk so it wouldn't be hard to trick him, if they dressed the minions up they could sneak in. "Witch-boy I have an idea. What do you say we go pay Bill and his gang a visit?" she asked. He just looked at her questions in his eyes, "Follow me" she said.

They stopped just outside the fort, it was walls of snow and wood made in to a crude building, "okay," said Kelda "if we can get the cloths off them, we can dress your little demons up and get in to town for some major fun". Witch-boy looked at the fort and without saying or doing anything, as far as Kelda could see, the minions rushed to the fort and broke in. Screams could be heard from Bill and his gang, and laughter from the minions. "What are they?", "hey don't do that!" "hey they have my coat!" the kids shouted. The minions came running back dressed in all the kids cloths. Kelda smiled "this was going to work" she thought as they head back to the town laughing, she had never seen Witch-boy like this he was normally quite but know was wild, she loved it. when they got to the gate Nev was still there he look up at them as they approached, "Hello kiddies, come to enjoy the party? 'ere why'd you bring that witch-boy he's got funny eyes I tell you." Nev drunkenly said "You can come in but don't let that witch-boy lead you astray, only drink apple juice *hic* like me." he opened the gate and everyone rushed in. The festival was in full swing, everyone one happy and enjoying themselves, Kelda and Witch-boy made it to the town square and got some food. After some planing Witch-boy told the minions to have some fun and Kelda and Witch-boy watched as they pulled down stalls and stands and smashing plates,the adults were drunk they just thought they kids were over tired, the two were laughing at it all then they saw the fireworks and a wicked smile crossed both their faces. the minions as one all stopped and went and grabbed some of them placing them round the big tree in the town center. Witch-boy got near the tree and sent a bolt of magic at the fireworks lighting the fuse both kids and minions watched as the tree went up in an explosion of color, Witch-boy held Kelda's hand as they laughed.

Suddenly there was a big crash and one of the houses crumbled and the warning bell sounded, the next minute people were running in all directions shouting "Empire, empire!", the minions disappeared in to the crowed, Kelda thought it looked fun "Witch-boy this looks good lets go see" running to the north gate and climbing up to the wall to see with the mayor and a few other villagers that hadn't run away and what they saw was a sight to see. There was an army out side the gate row upon row of armored men and on a raised bit of land stood two men on was in golden armor shouting orders, the other was fat, looking annoyed and wearing a toga. The one in gold started to shout at the people gathered on the town wall "Send out your magic users Nordberg so they may be cleansed in the name of the Empire and your new governor Borius!" the man gestured to the other one when saying his name. The mayor gulped and shouted back "We have no magic users here we are simple people of the land!" the one in gold got angry at this statement "Do not lie the sentinels have spoken!" then to hooded things appeared behind him, Kelda felt as if something was off with them as if they weren't part of this world, "send out your magic user or we will cleanse your whole town if necessary!". The mayor was panicking at this point looking around for help when he spotted Witch-boy. "Well..Well maybe we do have one!" the mayor shouted back picking up Witch-boy and throwing him over the wall to the troops. "NO!" screamed Kelda run to the wall edge but as she tried to jump down to her friend the mayor grab her, "Let me go i have to help him!" she started to cry "Don't be daft girl do you want to die to?" scolded the mayor Kelda could only watch as her friend ran to the forest away from the troops she saw the minions meet him at the edge of the forest, he looked back at her and disappeared in to the trees chased by the Empire troops, Kelda could just cry as she was handed to her mum as the Empire and the fat man, Borius, walk in to Nordberg calming it for the Glorious Empire.


	2. Chasing the Yeti

Kelda woke up with a start, her campfire still had a few embers in it, and she looked around nothing seamed to be near her so she relaxed. Kelda looked to the sky and saw the first rays of sunbeam down on the hunting grounds. Kelda thought back to her dream, she had dreamt about Witch-boy again, it had been 13 years since that terrible night when the Empire had taken Nordberg and witch-boy had been thrown over the wall. She had heard that as he ran he and the little demons had taken out half the Empire troops and freed a yeti they had caged up, but as he and the Yeti had run over the ice river it had cracked and both of them had drowned. Kelda hope it was a lie and he was safe but it got harder to believe with each year that past. The Empires hold on the town was complete, all forms of magic were band, if you weren't an Empire Citizen (ether born one or someone sponsored you to become one) you were part of the commoners with very few rights and if you weren't careful you could find yourself a slave, sold off the highest bidder with no freedom what so ever.

She started to break camp, 'I better start heading back' she thought 'best not make the guards sent to get me to angry by making them walk along way, they might be actually mad enough to whip me this time". She picked up her spear and the seals she had killed and started to walk back to Nordberg and her sad life as Borius' slave. She had been his slave since her parents had died of an illness when she was 7 and had nowhere else to go. Luckily Kelda wasn't a pleasure slave, so never had to shear a bed with the fat governor, just clean up after him so not really lucky then. The one time a soldier had tried to force her into his bed she had broken his nose, she got the whip for that then broke the guards arm now all of them were scared of her. She heard them coming a mile off they were so loud with all their clanking armor and marching, when they finally spotted her walking to them, the 5 soldier surrounded her. "Slave drop your weapon and come quietly," ordered the lieutenant, "I am already on my way back what's the problem?" asked Kelda. "Don't talk back slave surrender your weapon!" the lieutenant said getting mad. "Get lost this is my spear. Go and make your own Dareus," said Kelda standing her ground. "Kelda!" shouted Dareus " you have had your fun its time to go back and you know we can't let you have a weapon slave know your place!" Kelda got mad at that she was sick of the Empire looking down on her, she thought about fighting the guards here, she could take them they were the new troops sent here, the veterans had gone on a raid to the elven sanctuary which is why she had snuck out. She stared a Dareus thinking about where to hit first, when she thought that its not worth the trouble "Here its yours!" she said throwing the spear so it pierced the snow covered ground in-between Dareus' feet, Coursing one of the new men to faint, "Heat of a lion that one." Laughed Kelda. Dareus stared daggers at her, he picked up the spear broke it in half and through it away, ordering his men to carry the fainter he turned headed back to town, Kelda followed at her own pace.

As they got near the town Kelda could see the two giant statues of Borius that her had place to remind everyone that he and the Glorious Empire were in charge. Kelda's escort left her at the main gate and headed to the barracks and after she had dropped the seals at the butchers she headed to the biggest building in town, Borius' villa. She quickly snuck to her quarters and changed out of her hunting gear and in to her serving clothes, as she walk out her door a young girl dressed only in a loin-cloth, one of the pleasure slaves, came up to her "The master wants to see you Kelda. He is having his morning bath" she said then left. 'Great' thought Kelda 'I have to see that first thing how lucky'. When she got to the bath chamber she braced her self then knocked, "Enter" can Borius' voice along with the sound of water splashing, she opened the door and walked in. Borius was in the bath, Kelda tried not to let her eyes settle on any of his roles and roles of fat or is multiple chins, he waved a pudgy arm at her to come closer, with him were two female pleasure slaves both naked one was using her whole body to wash him the other had his member between her tits and was trying to wank him off, Kelda was amazed the slave had found the small thing under all that fat she looked at Borius's balding head and waited for her orders. "Ah slave there you are. I need to go get my traveling clothes ready, it seams the troops that raided those elves in their Sanctuary are coming back and have something to show me" he said, then looking down at the girl between his leg "Go faster slave! Use your tongue or shall I have you whipped again?" the girl looked at Borius with scared eyes then took his length in to her mouth. Kelda left the room to go get his clothes and wondered if this was going to be it for the rest of her life.

Deep in the bowels of the earth was the Netherworld, the ancient source of evil magic and the birth place of the very first minion, through one of the caves, that would be come the throne room, stood the old minion advisor Gnarl. The old minion was a brown by birth but now his skin was grey and wrinkled, he had a long grey beard that would make most wizards envious and a light stone dangling above his head supported from a stick on his back. The old minion was watching, the now grown up, Witch-boy make his way out of the Netherworld to see if he was the next Overlord. Gnarl thought back to that day 13 years ago, he was sat in this very cavern when a horde of brown minions came in carrying a block of ice saying they had found the master, inside the ice was a small boy with glowing eyes, after freeing him from the ice Gnarl could sense the old dark magic in him and with what the brown's told him about the carnage the boy had unleashed on the Empire he knew this Overlad was the next Overlord, he laughed as the Overlad pick a fight with one of the brown and thought his favorite saying ' _Evil always finds a way!'_. Over the next 13 year Gnarl and the minions had raised the boy in to a proper and powerful Overlord, 7 feet tall and with a body Hercules would be jealous of, now all that remained was for the young one to pass the tests and awaken the Netherworld then the world would have an Overlord again, Gnarl coming out of his thoughts turned his attention back to the mist pool and watched as the Overlad came to the combat test site.

The young man walked out of the Netherworld, his armor clanking as he moved, he tightened his helmet so it wouldn't come off, only his glowing eyes could be seen from under that helmet. He swung the axe in his right hand to test its weight and it felt good, on his left hand was the overlord gauntlet the ancient Overlording tool that let Overlords channel their magic and control the minions better. As he step into the cave where the tests will take place three minions rushed over to him "oh the master, the master!" exclaimed one of them jumping up and down, one of the others pushed him over and said grumpily "We'll see!". There was the sound of bells and a minion with a jesters hat approached "That's correct Rasp." said Quaver "He must be tested as the beetle is tested by the dung pile!" the young Overlord rolled his eyes at the self appointed jester and carried on into the cave. Suddenly Gnarls voice came in to his ear making him jump _"Those Nordberg wind go right up my nether', so I'll stay here. Your helmet will let me see and hear what you do.". "_ Fine Gnarl." he replied as he walked on, as he rounded a corner he came across a big block of ice with a big fury hand sticking out of it. _"We found an old friend of yours, he's been on 'Ice" for some time"_ Gnarl sniggered. He looked closer at the ice and saw that it was the yeti he had freed all those years ago. He laughed and swung his axe at the ice breaking it and freeing the now angry yeti, it tried to hit him but he jumped back so it missed. The yeti stormed off in a huff and Gnarl spoke up again _"Yeti's are relatively gentle creatures and extremely hardy, natures training dummies. At your current level you could bash him around for hours and he'll hardly feel a thing. So sire that's what we are going to do use the minions and prove your combat skills."_

10 minions gathered round him and he saw Quaver going to higher ground to watch, "Now it may be a touch indelicate but use those minions to whack that wad of fur!" Quaver sang in an off key tone. Witch-boy growled at Quaver then turned his attention to the yeti, he let his mind connect to the minion horde mind; the gem on the gauntlet glowed brown. He felt the minds wash over him, the brown minions minds gave off an aura of strength and earth as well as being simple. Now that he had the hordes minds he could command them without saying a word, the minions charged at the yeti with him following behind. The browns jumped all over the yeti scratching and bashing it all over, he hit it with his axe not doing much just getting the yeti more mad. The yeti through the minions off himself at the young man, who fell in a tangle heap with them, the yeti them ran out of the cave and in to the world outside. The young Overlord got up out of the minion pile "Gnarl, I couldn't even scratch him I thought I was stronger then that? Was all that training for nothing?" he asked getting angry. _"No sire, it's just that until you have proven that you are the Overlord and your dark soul has awakened you will be a bit weaker then you should be "_ Gnarl explained quickly the Witch-boy just grunted think it would have been nice to know before hand. He look a round for the yeti when Quaver started to sing a poem "Be gone you beast and make it fast coz if you don't we'll kick your arghhhhh!" another minion hit him with a snowball and quaver fell down a crack in the cave all the way down to the Netherworld, that made the young man laugh, Gnarl spoke up then _"The test target has wondered off. Follow him to the Hunting grounds Master."_ the young Overlord called his horde to him and walked out of the cave.

The sun light was blinding at first but his eyes got use to it fast then he saw the Hunting grounds as they were know. The snow and ice went on for miles; trees dotted around all over and formed a forest in the distance and the ocean brushed against the ice. He looked round and saw the yeti tracks in the snow and followed them, he and the minions came to an ice beach dotted with balls of fury that were moving. The minions were staring at the balls of fur, one of the ball turn to face the group and the young lord recognized them as baby seals, one of the seals came up out of the water with a fish in its mouth then throw it in the air and ate it whole. The minion Rasp was watching the seals and nudged the minion know as Scabies and said to him "See poor fishy." Scabies look at the baby seals and ran to the offending seal screaming "Die fur-ball" he it over the head and as it died a glowing orb fell to the snow. _"That's life-force sire, all living things poses it and when they die it drops out like this. Only magical creatures can see or touch it and we minions are born from life-force fed into the hive."_ Gnarl told the young lord. Scabies pick up the orb and brought it back to the master, as the orb came near the young lord it flew from the minions hands in to the gem on his gauntlet and vanished. _"Life-force that you collect will be sent back to the Netherworld and the minion hives spawn new minions."_ Gnarl explained _"Sadly we only have the brown hive at the moment so only brown minions can be spawned, so when you pass the tests we can go searching for the lost hives, now we lots of minions to fight and build your dark tower so be sure to get lots of life-force sire"_ The young lord thought about what he had been told then sent the minions to kill the rest of the baby seals and gather the life-force. After all the seal were dead the ground started to shake and a black shiny claw shaped rock popped out of the snow split open and a brown minion with a pick-axe and a hard hat jumped out "Brown minion gate for Master" it said proudly then jumped back in to the gate and disappeared. _"That was Grubby," said Gnarl "he's a minion digger, He is in charge of expanding the tunnel network and setting up gates that connect to the Netherworld. That one will allow you to call forth brown minions to add to your horde, how ever until you are the Overlord you can only control 15 minions, when you pass the tests we can send up a gate that will bring you to the throne room."._ "Okay Gnarl," said the young lord "Lets get these tests over with then." he called 5 more minions from the gate, the new born minions giggled as they popped out the gate, he searched for the yeti's tracks and followed them feather into the hunting grounds.

When the horde found the Yeti again it wasn't alone, there was a man with it covered in different furs holding a club, the man noticed them and stared at them wide eyed. "Where did you come from?" the man asked his ascent was clearly from Nordberg, " I got a permit from the Empire to hunt on these lands. This is my yeti I saw him first piss off!" he then hit the yeti with his cub, the yeti blinked growled and hit the hunter on the head squashing him, then through the squashed hunter in the air and ran off again. As they chased after the yeti the lord started to see signs of a hunting camp up ahead, he and the horde stopped just out of sight of the camp so the lord could work out his battle plan. From the camp he could hear lots of barking but the barks were to deep for normal dogs they sounded like wolves, suddenly the body of the squashed hunter fell in front of him landing head first in the snow so only the legs were left dangling out. A wolf then came out of the camp and started to chew on the hunter's leg, he looked at the wolf closely and saw it had a rope round its neck it had chewed through. The brown minions were looking at the wolf like it was a long lost friend that had returned to their life, they were saying lots of thing about the wolf like "Pretty wolfy" and "So playful" "Want one", the lord call the strongest minion in the horde, the Brown leader, to him. Gloob walked up to his master and felt what he wanted Gloob to do, Gloob walk slowly up to the wolf, which look at him its eyes curious, the minion put his claw out for the wolf to sniff. After the wolf had sniffed Gloob it put its head in to his claw that Gloob stroked, then climbed on the wolf's back and rode it like a human would a horse. Gloob bounded back to the horde the other minions looking jealous at the wolf, "Don't worry boys" the lord said "you can have the wolves in the camp after we kill the hunters" at that the minions started to get excited at this the thought of fighting, killing and then wolves of their own they couldn't wait.

The lord and the minions charged the camp, the hunters weren't expecting little demons and one giant one to attack the camp, the horde jumped on to the nearest hunters dragging them down so they could bash them with their clubs or scratched at them with their claws. The lord walked up to the hunters left over, he swung his axe cleaving one in two, the remaining of the hunter had recovered from the shock and grabbed their weapons and attacked the lord. They came at him from both sides spears aimed for his vital spots 'just as expected from hunters' the lord thought, he grabbed the spear on his right and snapped it in his hands spun his body round and used the broken spear to block the other as he continued to spin he swung his axe decapitating the unarmed hunter them thrust the spear head in to the eye of the other one. He looked back at the camp and saw the minions had killed their prey too the snow turning red with the blood, they then gathered the life-force from the hunters, the browns then looted the camp and the dead hunters for weapons and armor. Brown minions would use and wear anything they found useful for battle, Gnarl had told him stories of the past where some had even used pumpkins as helmets, now the browns were wearing the furs of the hunters and using their weapons the group moved to were the wolves were being kept. Gloob rode up front to show the wolves they were friendly, as they saw this they bowed their head in a sign of submission and minions freed them and bonded with them as their new mounts.

Surrounded by the wolves the young lord was reminded of the time he and the girl Kelda had snuck out one night and found a wolf den and played with the newborn pups, now he thought about it why did the wolves let them near the pups in the first place? It doesn't matter he thought and focused his mind on the surrounding area. To the west he saw the yeti trapped buy a big wooden wall and to the east there was a small island with lots and lots of seals connected to the main land by a wooden bridge. _"Look at all that lovely life-force sire"_ Gnarl said, _"It is just begging to be taken"_. "Okay Gnarl, come on boys lets go!" the lord chuckled. As the minions chased and hunter the seal a ship pulled up to the island, the ship was covered in floral patens and looked like it was grown not built, on the deck of the ship were people dressed in mainly green clothes with multi colored patches, one of them clearly the leader of this group saw the massacre of the seals and shouted at the lord "Hey! What are you doing? Cease this barbaric slater at once!" he and some of the others jumped off the ship on to the island and the lord could see they were Elves by their long ears. The leader carried on speaking "I am Florian Greenheart and these are the soldiers of the sanctuary. Valiant protectors of the Sanctuaries and all creatures of magic and nature" he turned to his brother elves "Soldiers stop this savage protect the fluffy one" with that he jumped back on to the ship and watched the others two charge at the lord. As one of the elves saw set on by the wolves, their teeth ripping the elf apart and scattering his limbs all over, the other jump at the young lord who caught him buy the throat and crushed the elf's windpipe. Seeing this Florian got the ship moving and sailed away from the island, _"Terrible elf."_ said Gnarl _"this is what happens when you spend to much time hugging thing sire."_ As the minions mopped up the last of the seals and Gloob now had an elf sword for a weapon the horde heard a loud bang and looked as the yeti had smashed the wall and was walking on the horde started to follow it.

The yeti seamed to be following a well-worn path through the land as the young Overlord and his minions chased after it they came up on a spot atop a hill that could see a town in the distance. As the lord looked at it gnarl spoke up _" Do you remember that place sire? It's Nordberg, the sleepy snow town that was going to hand you over to the Empire",_ "How could I forget old one, I have been dreaming about taking my revenge on it all these years." replied the lord "It will bow to me or burn!" Gnarl chuckled at that looking forward to the carnage that would come. As they walked along the trail they came across the main hunters camp, there were lots of tents, hunting supplies, all the animals they had caught and in the middle of it all was the yeti fighting the hunters. The young lord and the minions watched as the yeti bash the hunters around their screams of pain rang in the morning sky and their blood dyed the snow red, when most of the hunters had been dealt with the horde attack the rest leaving only the yeti who was very mad right now and attack the minions. The yeti punch a some of the minions sending them flying away the lord charged in and swung the axe at the yetis legs this time drawing blood the yeti hobbled away as the minions recovered and got ready to bring it down. The elven ship approached the camp and Florian look at the surrounded yeti "No, no stop this at once!" he shouted coming ashore "This noble beast belongs with us. Come here, come here boy!" the yeti ran to him some of the other elves holding off the minions, the young lord just watched. Once the yeti was on the ship Florian spoke to the lord again "As if we magical folk didn't have enough problems with the Empire, with out the like of you trying to expunge us!" the ship set off "Now let us away set sail for the Sanctuary!" the yeti had calmed down and growled "Aaaankoooo" the lord watched the ship sail away and it looked like it was heading in to the mounting up ahead. _"We should follow them lord. If only we had the swimming ability of the blue minions, ah well guess we will have to find another way in to this sanctuary of theirs."_ Gnarl said to the lord. Putting aside his questions on blue minions the lord and his wolf mounted horde set off towards the mountain the ship had been heading to.

After awhile of traveling the horde came to the foot of the mountain there were lots of tree stumps around but no trees "Where trees gong?" ask the brown leader, _"Looks like some ones been logging this area Gloob"_ said the old minion _"I wonder what for"._ Getting closer to the mountain the lord saw a cave with some sort of fire barrier blocking part of it off and in front of that were some Empire troops, dress the same way as the day he had to flee Nordberg. One of the troops spotted him "Breach men we have a breach!" with that the troop turned to the horde and started to attack. When the wolves teeth and minion claws and weapons started to cut through their armor and flesh, it was clear these men hadn't battled anything that fought back before, the minions made quick work of them leaving none alive to warn any other troops in the area. The minions then equipped the better weapons and armor from the bodies and Rasp tugged on the masters trousers, he looked down at the brown minion who said "Me smell magic" and pointed at the cave. This must be the way to the elves sanctuary he thought and walked in to the cave. The wolves howled not wanting to go near the fire. _"Like most beast lord these wolves are a fared of fire, you'll have to leave them here."_ Gnarl said _"Don't worry I will send some minions to bring them to the Netherworld, will find a nice cave for them to call home"_ , the lord grunted his approval "Okay boy dismount and follow me. The wolves are going back to the Netherworld." the minions looked sad but they follow the masters orders so left the wolves at the cave entrance and heard the sound of the newly appointed stable minions that would look after the hordes mounts till they were needed.

A little bit in to the cave they came across a ledge with a path down to the bottom and at the bottom was more Empire troops and a fat man in a toga, the lord recognized him as the man who said he was the new governor that night 13 years ago, the lord crouched down so as not to be spotted and through his connection to the minions told them to be quite. The fat man spoke to the centurion "Do hurry up I have a warm bath and a large blow of quail's eyeballs to attend to." the centurion saluted "Of course Borius. I thought you would like to meet some of the brave soldiers who secured the magical creatures form the area," he pointed to the 3 soldiers stood looking at the forth who was flapping his arms "and these are the lucky ones". One of the soldiers approached the one flapping his arms "What's the matter with you Maximus?" he asked, "No I want you to call me..." he said his voice getting high and squeaky ". Miss Trixie bell buttercup fairy and you can come and visit me when I move in to my mushroom house." The centurion tuned to Borius and said "S.I.C species identity crises its a terrible thing," he then pointed to a large round stone tablet with a glowing crystal at its center, "We have no idea what this thing is but it was well guarded." Borius looked at it with little interest "Well make sure it doesn't eat anyone then bring it to my town hall" with that he waddled off the troops following him carrying the strange thing with them. Gnarl spoke up now the troops had gone _"Foolish fat human. That's a spell stone sire it unlocks the magical potential of any who poses it we cant let it fall into Borius's fat hands"._ The lord and his horde snuck after the troops along the maze of tunnels but then the young lord sensed strong light magic and followed that hoping it was the stone. It wasn't it turned out to be the entrance to the Elves Sanctuary, and across the bright over the water it was guarded buy a plant lady hat the lord recognized from the books he had read as a dryad. "Welcome to the sanctuary creature of magic" the dryad spoke, "No!" said a voice the lord recognized as that elf's, he turned to see the ship coming up the river in the cave to make dock. "Do not let this barbarian in dryad. He is an enemy of all that is fluffy and adorable." Florian told the plant lady. She then dug her roots onto the ground forming a well of vines blocking the way in. _"Never mind lord."_ said Gnarl "We can find a way past her later, for now lets focus on that spell stone". "You are right Gnarl." he said turning back after the spell stone, as he did he felt a dark spark of magic reach him through all that light, it was similar to the browns but hot and wild he reached back for that spark and heard _"Burn!"_ then it was gone lost in a sea for light magic. He would ask Gnarl about it later.

They exited the cave and saw a strange site the spell stone was on the ground with the bodies of the soldiers around it and there were little beards with legs and hats squeaking around it. As the got closer to the stone the beards blocked their path and on stepped forward squeaking. _"Gnomes!"_ Gnarl said, _"don't worry lord I can translate... He say that spell stones belongs to the Gnomes" the_ Gnome squeaked some more _"now he is ether declaring war or he want to marry you to his pet dormouse," the_ Gnome ran at the lords feet bummed in to his boot and fell backwards _"That's clearly an act of aggression sire whip them out!"_ the lord raised his boot a stomped on the gnome, the rest squeaked and charged at him the minions just picked them up and had fun with all the different ways you could squish a gnome. 'If the Empire troops were taken out by these things then taking over the Empire will be easy' the lord thought. He ordered several minions to carry the stone _"Now we have the spell stone sire I have sent Grubby with a gate to bring it and you back to the Netherworld. That should give the Netherworld a kick in the pants and prove you are the Overlord we've been waiting for."_ Gnarl laughed. The lord and the horde continued on when they came to a clearing they could clearly see Nordberg; He was so close he thought I wonder if she is still there. The ground shuck again and a bit further on hidden by rocks a giant claw came out the earth and opened up to show it was the tower gate. The minions put the stone onto the gate and it vanished to the Netherworld then out the gate came lots of blue magic which was absorbed buy the new Overlord _"Look at all that evil energy flowing in to you lord, I don't know what its unlock in you but feel free to try it out" the_ Overlord let his magic loose and could feel the incredible power flowing through him he stepped on to the tower gate and was transported to the netherworld and his new seat of power.


	3. Rekindling the Flames

The Overlord knew that this new dark tower of his was a giant stalactite hung over an abyss that lead to the bowels of the earth and that all the rooms were carved out of the black stone of the Netherworld. He landed from the portal into the middle of his new Throne room there were minions all round the room cheering as he entered. the room itself was very big but still rough around the edges the minions would still need to do more carving. Little streams of lava flowed through the cracks in the room then dropping back down to the river of lava far below. Up some stairs was his throne and behind that were more stairs leading off to the other rooms of the tower. Above him the portal gate hung from the celling like a chandelier beneath his feet was the circle trap door that would drop anybody he wanted to the fiery pit below. he looked out the big door opposite the throne and saw a walk way with a few floating platforms that would take him to other parts of the Netherworld.

In fount of the throne stood Gnarl grinning as he watch the new Overlord inspecting his new home. Gnarl walked over to the new lord the other minions parting to let him through, Quaver ran up from behind Gnarl and pushed in front of the old minion practically vibrating with joy as he spoke to his new master "The Netherworld has excepted you as its new master! I knew it, I knew it..." Gnarl bopped the jester on the head "Do calm down Quaver, we don't want another accident," Gnarl told the happy minion, he the turned to the Overlord "It is true you are our true Overlord. It's some what of a relief sire, we didn't want to berry another candidate." that made the Overlord chuckle, Gnarl continued "The Netherworld will be your new seat of power lord, its a bit on the cavernous side but now your here we can refurbish and expand the tunnel system allowing you to concur more of the lands and spread your Dark Domain". At this Quaver jumped over Gnarl and said loudly "I believe this calls for a small poem to commemorate the event" he cleared is throat and Gnarl mumbled "Oh dear he's off again" as Quaver sang/spoke in an of key voice "There once was a boy from the Nordberg town who sent the locals screaming, but now the boy's become a man he'll start his evil scheming." he then bowed even though no one was clapping. Gnarl sighed "Sorry about that sire sometimes there's no stopping him, believe me I've tried. Well sire if you would like to try your throne out for size I can then introduce you to the minion staff and then we can get down to evil business." Gnarl then walked to stand next to the right side of the throne, the old minions place as the Overlord's adviser. The Overlord sat on the throne and everything felt right, his blood sung to him, he was a conqueror an ancient force of magic and he would rule the world from this throne. As this feeling washed over him Gnarl was getting the minions ready.

The Overlord looked down at the minions that have been taken out the horde and given jobs around the tower, there were three of them. "The first one you have already met sire," Gnarl said pointing at the first minion in a hard hat "Grubby, the minion digger, he will expand the tunnels so we can send more portal gates out" Grubby bowed his hard hat almost falling off. The second minion stepped up he was more muscular then normal brown, he had on a metal helmet that covered his face and thick gloves "This is Giblet, he is the forge master, he is somewhat of a robust fellow been around almost as long as I have." Gnarl said "Right now we can't use the forge as we don't have the reds to power it." Giblet then spoke up with a growl but a bit better then the other minions "When forge up and running we will make great armor, spiky armor." Gnarl nodded at Giblet the turned to the Overlord "Giblet and Grubby are also in charge of renovating the tower and will put the minions to work on it right away." The two minions in questions bowed then went off to get to work, this left only one minion to be introduced. The lord look at the last minion, he was not a brown minion as he didn't have big ears like the browns but had a tail which the browns don't. His skin was pale blue/gray, he had gills on his neck and webbed feet, hands and around his face. He was wearing a black hooded robe and carrying a scythe twice the size of him, he looked like a minion grim reaper, the minion bowed and in a gurgling voice said "Master". The Overlord look at Gnarl as the old minion started to speak "This is minion Mortis he is in-charge of the minion burrows that is to say he facilitates your decisions. The minion burrows are the home of the minions and were we keep the hives, Mortis makes sure the minions come in to the world and leave the world properly. He can also bring minions back from the dead so we don't have to worry about loosing your strongest minions." Mortis spoke up at that "Yes Master but there is always a price life for death and death for life. You will have to use the life force of the lesser minions to bring them back" the Overlord nodded taking all the information in. Gnarl continued talking "That right Mortis but don' worry sire minions will happily die for their Overlord, several times if necessary, hehe." The Overlord looked at Gnarl and said "Okay Gnarl that's all good, now I have something to ask you I felt something strange when I was near that sanctuary..."

The Overlord came out of the gate into the snowy fields near Nordberg, He called his horde of brown minions and set off to the cave where the sanctuary was hidden. Gnarl had said the evil he felt must have been one of the lost minion tribes somewhere deep in the sanctuary. Knowing the elves they must have found the hive and felt its magic and tried to protect it or hug it. So know the Overlord was back in the snow minions following him ready for some carnage. The minions were existed to be in the field again some were even having a snow ball fight as they walked. As they got near the cave the elf Florian blocked the way "Holt don't think you can find refuge in our sanctuary!" he said then putting his hand above his eyes look around him "What was that? Come solders I think I hear the call of a mildly distressed badger" one of the minions through a snow ball at him knocking him on his ass. he got up flustered "Retreat to the sanctuary" he shouted and ran off. The Overlord heard Gnarl chuckling in his ear and set off after the elf fallowing him through the maze of cave. when they found the entrance it was the same as it had been when they left it before, the dryad and sealed it with roots, the horde stopped a little bit away from the bridge to plan what to do. the Overlord look at the roots and knew that the dryad was strengthening them so if he stormed up and tried to chop at the roots she would grow them back as quickly as he cut them. As he looked around the cave he saw a small tree trunk that connected this side of the cave river bank to a small ledge that looked like it could lead into the Sanctuary. It was to small for him to cross but the minions could do it no problem. The only problem the minions were not good at thinking for them selves, just before he had left he had seen one minion use another as a bench to saw wood and cut the minion under the wood in half. He called Gloob over to him, the brown leader was a bit smarter then the rest of the horde but still not that bright he could sneak in and attack the dryad, he looked in to the minions eyes opening his mind to the minion and let his magic flow freely hoping to imprint what he wanted the minion to do.

The next thing he knew he was looking at a big body in armor laying on the floor, also the cave seamed a lot bigger then it did a minuet ago _"Master"_ came Gloob's voice in is head. He looked round and saw he was the same size as the other minions all of whom were looking at him, then Gnarls voice spoke up in shock _"Y...Your in the body of a minion sire, I hope no ones looking."_ The Overlord quickly organized his thought, yes he had some how entered Gloob's body taking over it. He could feel the minions thoughts next to his own, he moved around in his new body feeling the minions power and fighting instincts mix with his own. He then tested if he could control the horde the same as before and was happy to see everything was the same, he then checked his body and saw that it was fine just looked to be asleep. _"Minions are smaller then you lord. Maybe you could use your new form to sneak up on that dryad"_ Gnarl mused. "Yes Gnarl that thought had crossed my mind" snapped the lord in Gloob's voice "Has any of the past Overlords used this type of magic?", _"No lord, you are the first Overlord to posses a minion"_ Gnarl answered. That made the Overlord very happy he had already surpassed his predeceases in one way, leaving some minions to guard his body the minion Overlord and his horde crossed the small tree over the water, the Overlord could feel the fear of the water from Gloob it almost coursed him to loose his balance "Stop it! It's just water!" shouted the lord in his head at the minion, they got to the other side and found a path that lead in to the Sanctuary.

The horde got to the end of the path in to the Sanctuary and found they were just a little way behind the Dryad. She hadn't noticed them, the Overlord recalled what he had read about Dryads they were born from special plants and as long as that plant was alive the Dryad could draw power from it and heal themselves. Also the plant cant be hurt as long as the Dryad was active but the one time the plant and Dryad were vulnerable was when she was healing and the plant would open its leaves and petals to collect nutrients you had to attack then to kill them both off. He looked around to find the Dryad's birth plant, they were never to far from it, he fount it, it was just at the other-side of the clearing. He sent some minions to wait at the plant to attack when it opened, the rest charged at the dryad catching her by surprise. The Overlord could feel Gloob guiding how best to fight in this body, he listened to it, he and the rest of the minions jumped all over the Dryad her vine like tentacles whipping at them and her hands trying to grab the minions that where clawing and cutting and bashing her. After a few minuets of fighting the dryad curled up and started to heal herself and the minions at the plant ripped it up when the plant was gone the dryad screamed and shriveled up and died. The roots blocking the bridge shrunk back opening the way, the horde ran back to the Overlord's body and the Overlord let his mind slide back into his body. He stood back up and looked at Gloob who was rubbing his head but other wise seemed fine. He walked off the horde following behind over the bridge and into the Sanctuary.

As he entered the Sanctuary the first thing he noticed was how green it was, lush grass was growing everywhere, all manor of plants and trees were growing all around and it was warm to warm for a cave in the snow covered fields, ' _Must be the magic'_ he thought. The next thing he noticed was the light magic, there was a lot of it, it surrounded him and rubbed ageist his dark aura, the magic seemed to sparkle, like being swarmed by hundreds of flies. _"To many creatures of light magic around here for my liking sire"_ Gnarl commented _"Light magic occurs when the magical energy around us gets absorbed into good creatures, those who use it for noble pursuits like twinkling , saving people and baking lentil cookies. Urgh!"_ The Overlord chuckled at his advisor's words as he walked deeper in. Suddenly a minion hit his leg head first, he looked down at the minion to see it had a big goofy smile on its face, he looked to where the minion had been standing in the horde and saw two pink fat things with wings. On looking closer he saw that they were fairies, very fat fairies, their bodies were the size of an average pumpkins with twig like arms and legs, their heads were round with big eyes and lips and had more chins then you could count, the wings coming out their back didn't look like they should be able to hold them up in the air, but some how they were, and finally that both of these fairies were equipped with the biggest breasts that could fit on those bodies, the fairies were basically half boobs with wings. All the minions were staring at the fairies with lust in their eyes, some were even air groping with their claws. The two fat fairies looked at the horde and the Overlord with discussed in their eyes, then the one how had slapped the minion at his feet spoke up "We don't take kindly to your type here. you just make trouble, scaring the wild life and throwing fire ball, just like those little red devils!" the other one came over to her friend "Come on Petunia lets leave this riff-raff." she said then both flu off.

 _"Red Devils...fireballs...it seams that we were right sire, there are some minions in this Sanctuary."_ Gnarl said sounding disappointed that the fairies had gone. "Well that's good, I would hate to think we were wasting our time crushing this place" said the Overlord sarcastically. _"Quite right lord"_ laughed Gnarl _"From what those fairies said it sounds like they have our Red hive. Which would explain why it so warm in this cave. The Reds can control and use fire and love nothing more then roasting and burning things. The hive itself gives off a lot of heat so is most likely what is keeping this cave warm for the wimpy elves."_ The horde and its master walked deeper in to the cave till they came to a folk in the path, one way lead to a bridge which was guarded by another dryad and clearly went to where the elves village was, the other was not blocked but looked like all the plants were allowed to grow freely and most likely was where the magical animals lived. To be safe the Overlord let his magic search for the evil he felt last time and sure enough it was coming from the wilder path side. The dryad guarding the bridge didn't seam to interested in them so must only attack if he tried to go that way the lord thought and hurried down the path to find the Red minions.

The path he was on kept getting lower and lower in the cave, when it did flatten out he found that he was in some sort of forest. the trees were tall and there roots were growing haphazardly all over the floor, there were lots of streams and rivers flowing through this place not deep enough to bother him but to deep for the minions to walk in and live, luckily the minions were good climbers and used the roots and branches of the trees to make small bridges to get across. The Overlord kept following the dark magic he felt from the lost minions as it got stronger the closer he was. The animals in this place could sense his dark power and had run away to hide, which was fine by the Overlord he didn't want to waist time on mindless animals, he wanted to find the reds and then burn this home of light magic to the ground. As they were getting closer the Overlord stepped on something metal, looking down at his feet it turned out to be an Empire shield, he gave his surroundings a proper look now. There were bits of Empire weapons and armor everywhere, there was even a body of a dead solider near some holes with doors on, this was clearly where the raiding party from Nordberg had come through. As he walked over to the body he heard the squeaking of hundreds of gnomes, they jumped up out of the holes and started to drag the body down to their homes at the same time so started to attack the lord and his minions trying to defend their loot. _"Gnomes so fiddly always having to peal them off your armor"_ said Gnarl as the Overlord and minions easily killed the attacking gnomes. Not bothered about the body the Overlord carried on looking for the Reds,

A little further into the forest the horde came across a small lake with many rivers shooting off from it. in the center of this lake was an island that had lots of fires scattered around it. The Overlord reached out with his magic and felt the darkness coming from the flames _"Burn!"_ the few dark minds felt his presence _"Master? burn for master burn, burn!"_ The over lord ordered the browns to cut down a tree to make a bridge to the island and after a few moments the red minions from the island had walked, carefully, over the water to him. The Red minions like the all minions were named after their skin color. These red minions were the same size as the browns but not as muscular, they didn't have big ears instead their ears were small, also out of the top of their heads were two horns, the horns lay on top of their heads not pointing up like the lord thought they would after being called devils. Another thing the Reds had that the Browns didn't was a small tail with an arrow head at its tip, the Reds stomachs, the whole of their under their arms and their claw palms glowed yellow and was where they could generate their fire from. As the browns were greeting the reds one of them came up to the Overlord and bowed it then looked up at its new master and spoke in a voice that sounded just like a fire burning "Master me Blaze leader of Red minions. We burn all that stand in your way!" The Overlord looked at Blaze and the rest of the Reds he then stretched out his gauntlet towards them, the gem on it turned red and all the red minions snapped to attention. "Good now that I have the reds we can leave this place" said the Overlord _"Sorry Sire I am afraid that's not true."_ said Gnarl _"unless we find the red hive and bring it back to the Netherworld the reds won't be able to leave the area. The hives spawn new minions and gives off an aura that keeps them alive but unless they are linked to an Overlord and his evil magic source, the Netherworld in your case sire, the minions can't go to far away. Of course as soon as the hive is linked in it starts to get life-force for new minions and the minions can go anywhere as the magic to keep them alive is generated but the gauntlet and everything else linked to the Netherworld."_ The Overlord growled at Gnarl and the horde looked at him "That would have been good to know before I set off. Anything else you would like to tell me Gnarl?" _"No sire, I am sorry its my age it must have slipped my mind"_ answered Gnarl, "Fine Gnarl. Blaze where is your hive?" the Overlord asked the Red leader. The Red looked at the lord "Elves took to town. Hive give heat elves took to warm them. stupid elves" the Overlord sighed "Okay boy's lets get that hive" he and the horde walked back towards the folk in the road that lead to the elves town.

Back at the folk in the road the dryads had sensed him coming as they had put up another wall of roots. Now that the Overlord had the reds with him he wasn't worried about getting past them as they were just plants and plants catch fire. He and the browns charged in hacking at the dryads as the reds stood back throwing fire balls. The plant ladies soon were a blaze and screaming as they died the roots shrunk back to their normal size opening the bridge to the elf town. After they had crossed the bridge the horde came to an elevator, looking up he saw lots of hanging platforms attached to the tree tops, it seamed that the elves had built there town high up to not mess with the creatures. "It's you!" shouted a voice, the Overlord looked around and saw that elf Florian standing on a ledge just out of reach, "You don't belong here! Leave now or you will incur the wrath of our wondrous Queen Fay." You elves don't scare me give me the Red hive and I will leave you unharmed" Said the Overlord _"What lord are you sure you want to just let them go?"_ asked Gnarl sounding a bit worried "Of course not Gnarl" whispered the Overlord "I just want the hive in my hands before we destroy this place if we can" Gnarl sighed in relief, the elf just looked at the horde and jumped away, "Cowardly elf." said the Overlord stepping in to the elevator with the minions giggling as it ascended.

At the top of the elevator he stepped out in to the hanging town. It was quite amazing, there was walk ways rapping round each tree with winding steps going to different levels, bridges linked every tree to another and crystals were hanging from branches lighting up the area making it as bright as day in the cave. "Blaze can you tell where the hive is?" he asked the red leader, "Yes master the hive is further on and lower in town." replied Blaze. The lord smiled a wicked smile and set off, the elves of the town screamed and ran as he and his horde smashed and burned their way through the town, some of the elves tried to fight back but were quickly set on fire or smashed up by the minions or if they were unlucky they got in the Overlords way. Those elves were cut in half or had their bones smashed to dust. After a few minuets of blood shed, that was not even a warm up of the Overlord, they came to a balcony that looked over a beautiful meadow, lots of flowers, tall grass and a peaceful aura, it was horrible. At the back of the meadow was a waterfall cascading down to form a river that would lead outside. where the river vanished from site and connected to the meadow was a giant statue of an elven woman holding a huge crystal, the dress of the statue was glowing with the crystal. The statue woman was very beautiful, it had a curvy body, sexy hips and tits and a perfect slender face. Gnarl spoke up on seeing the statue _"Mmm that Fay's a nice looking wench, pity she's a fairy."_ "Yes I agree" said the lord, Blaze came up to the Overlord and pulled at his leg "Hive behind stone lady" the lord looked at him and back at the statue it was going to have to come down then, he started to look for a way down to the meadow.

At the top of the stairs to the meadow was a band stand with lots of different instruments and lots of elven warriors. The warriors all had their swords drawn looking scared, one of the elves spoke up "Lets leave all this bad karma behind us man." The Overlord just let out a booming laugh and stared down the elf "You stand in my way, stopping me getting what is mine and you attack me and since I am winning you want me to stop, ha-ha, is you don't resist I will end your life quickly" The elves were taken back with what he was saying, they then charged at him, the minions rushed to stop them but one got through and swung his sword at the Overlord. The Overlord blocked the sword with his axe the elf then jumped over the lord but the Overlord was quicker he spun round so when the elf landed the lord cut his head off. Another elf came at him from behind and the lord shot a magical bolt at the elf stopping him in his tracks, the Overlord felt the elf's will bend to his own and let the magic stop, the elf then turned round and attacked his fellow elves the lord just watched was the minions and his new slave fought. When the fight was over the all the elves were dead including the one he turned, some of the minions had died as well but that didn't concern him. He then felt a surge of dark magic under him at the bottom of the stairs and a small dark gate appeared _"Ah Grubby got through,"_ said Gnarl _"this is a temporary gate sire, these can be use when we can't fit a proper gate in an area. Unlike the other gates these ones don't stay after we are done with them but we can always reactivate them when we want in the same location."_ The Overlord nodded as he listened to Gnarl, then ordered the minions to loot everything they could as he just looked at the statue. as the looting was coming to an end Gnarl spoke up again _"It seams you have looted a harp sire. Quaver has just fainted with excitement. Are you sure you want him to have a harp sire?"_ "Its fine Gnarl let him have it" replied the Overlord, _"As you wish Dark one"_ With the looting done he stepped in to the meadow and from above he heard Florian's voice shout down at him "You and your barbaric creatures many have trampled our village but you will respect our holy shrine! The crystal protects all life in this sanctuary" "Well I better take it then!" shouted back the Overlord. Then three dryads suddenly appeared in the tall grass and started to advance on him. He stepped back out of the grass and shouted at his reds "Light them up boys!" the reds then throw fireballs at the dryad and grass setting the meadow on fire the three dryads screamed and died as their bodies and birth plant was turned to ash. When the fire had stopped nothing was left of the meadow or the dryads, he walked over to the base of the statue and saw that there was a path behind it. He and the minions made short work on the statue pulling it down and opening the path behind it, the crystal fell to the ground undamaged _"That crystal is full of magic and fairy nonsense show it your evil presence sire"_ said Gnarl getting existed. The Overlord lashed his magic to the crystal absorbing all the light magical energy into his gauntlet and changing it to pure evil energy, when it was done the crystal shattered and Florian spoke up again from his safe spot above it all "You have angered Queen Fay don't say I didn't warn you" and with that he ran away again.

There was a bright light floating in the air and from that light appeared a women, the one from the statue, the magic energy coming from her was immense. The women's was just as beautiful as the statue, she had a sparkly aura around her, this must be queen fay the overlord thought. She spoke with disgust in her voice "You have stolen our spell stone and defiled this shrine bringing darkness into a place of light! Suffering be upon you!" she then let off a magic blast and vanished. The cave then started to collapse in on its self big rocks fell down crushing so of the minions the horde rushed down the path and saw on the river lots of ships sailing out the cave, so the queen had got the rest of her people to safety, at the end of the path near the water edge heating up the water was the Red hive. It looked like a volcanic stone with lots of holes in it and a red glow from deep with in it. The lord ordered the red to carry it, it took ten red minions to lift it and they were being very carefully with it despite the falling rocks. As they made their way back to the gate one of the falling rocks hit the Overlord on the shoulder ripping some of his armor off but otherwise leaving him unharmed. they got back to the get and put the red hive on it the hive vanished in a bright light making its way back to the Netherworld and its place in the minion spawning pits, then the Overlord and his horde stepped on to the gate and went home. When he landed in the throne room he saw that Quaver and set up the harp just off to the side of the room and had almost finished building a drum and gotten two other minions to be part of his band. Gnarl hobbled over to him "Well done dark one we have the reds back. The place seams less drafty now their back" he then saw the Overlords armor "What happened lord? Oh never mind know the Reds are back we can get the forge up and running again Giblet will be pleased. Now lord why don't you rest up and then we can plan our next move." the Overlord started top take off his armor and walked up to the privet quarters and fell asleep in his make shift bed of furs, dreaming of burning elves and taking revenge on Nordberg.


	4. A Mid-Winter's Gift

**Hi sorry for the long wait lots of things have happened will try to update more often anyway here is the next chapter**

The Reds had settled nicely back in to the Netherworld, they had found a lake of lava in the spawning pits in which to settle in and soon new red minions were being born. The construction of the tower was coming alone as well as it could, with minions doing the work, scaffold had been put up and lots of the ruble had been cleared with only 13 minions dying in the proses. The forge was up and running now they had the reds to power it, the sound of hammers on metal and the odd minion screaming when they hit their own claw could be heard. The Overlord was in the forges armory trying on his new armor that Giblet had made for him.

"Master like?" asked Giblet "It better armor, stronger armor and made just for you."

It was true this armor fit the Overlord much better then the last set he had worn, it had been the last overlord's armor, now this one fitted him like a glove. He moved around in it, it felt easy to move in and conferrable,

"Yes Giblet its good, this is some fine armor" said the Overlord.

Giblet swelled with pride at his master comments; he then turned to two minions that were stood watching "You, Mud, Oh-no go bring master's axe!" Giblet shouted the Red and Brown minions ran of and came back with a new axe for the Overlord.

He took the axe from them and examined it, it was the same size as his last one but had two blades on it instead of one, and the handle had some carvings of the minions on it as well as some old evil runes. The Overlord took up his stance and swung the axe round imagining fighting people, after a few swings he rested its head on the floor and leaned on it "this is good to Giblet. It's lighter then the other one," said the Overlord,

"No master you stronger now" replied Giblet.

The Overlord shrugged his shoulders and turned to the sound of some one walking into the room, he saw Gnarl suddenly appear from the shadows smiling,

"How do you do that Gnarl?" asked the Overlord "you just seam to appear out of no were some times." Gnarl looked at the Overlord and his grin got wider

"Now sire I don't know what you mean I just walk to places just like everything else"

"Right what ever you say old man I will find out one day you know," said the Overlord,

"I bet you will master" chuckled Gnarl.

"So you want something or just here to inspect me in my new armor?" the lord asked,

"Both my lord, the armor really looks good on you quite imposing." answered Gnarl "Also there is some one here to see you" that shocked the Overlord who would know how to get down here

"Who and how did he get here?" He asked,

"A peasant from Nordberg I think sire and he said he asked one of our gate to speck to you and it brought him here." Gnarl explained,

"Hmm lets see what he wants then shall we," said the Overlord walking to the floating rocks to take him up to the throne room.

The Overlord sat on his throne looking down at the peasant standing in front of him on the portal trap door. The man was definitely from Nordberg he was dressed in nothing but fur. The man kept looking around him at all the minions and was clearly scared of being here he kept glancing at the Overlord then quickly looking away and back to the minions. After long enough silence, to make the peasant panic a bit, the Overlord spoke "What bring you to my Netherworld? Speak!"

The man gulped then started to speak with a hint of fear in his voice "Forgive the intrusion but your visit to Nordberg has not gone unnoticed. The Empire is trying to dig down to the Netherworld. I sneaked out to tell you, I thought after you have dealt with Borius you might see your way to rewarding me for this information by maybe making me mayor of Nordberg once you concur it. You know when your not busy your magnificence, maybe just on Sundays, Sunday afternoon maybe."

The Overlord just stared at the peasant as he spoke, when he was done the Overlord stayed silent watching the fear built in the man's face. After what felt like an eternity to the man the overlord nodded and relief washed over the man.

"Thank you I can't wait to start my...I mean our mayoral duties" the man turned to leave when the floor beneath him open and dropped him in to the fire pit below.

The minions laugh as the man fell, the Overlord turned to Gnarl "As if I would trust a snitch." chuckled the Overlord, Gnarl stroked his beard and replied

"Quite right sire. Now we can't let the Empire hold Nordberg they will start to think the place belongs to them."

The Overlord picked up his axe and walked to the portal "Get the minions ready Gnarl, it's time I paid my old home a visit" with that the Overlord vanished into the portal and Gnarl ordered Quaver to bring some snacks this was going to be a good fight to watch.

The lord and his minions crept through the snow covered forest towards Nordberg, doing this brought back memories of the day he and the brown had fled from the village, they had even passed the bolder he had launched form their catapult squashing a whole platoon. Coming to the edge of the forest the lord looked out at the village of Nordberg, the village had grown the roofs of lots of houses could be seen over the big wall surrounding the place, it was even bigger then the one he was thrown from, the empire must have rebuilt it. It was not yet sunrise but the village was covered in different colored lights and lots of bunting hanging from everything in sight, this too brought back memories 'It's mid-winters eve' thought the Overlord 'How fitting that today is the day I return'. Gnarl then spoke up

 _"That gate won't be easy to get past Dark One._ _Maybe if we find their dig site we can find something to help open that gate."_

The Overlord looked around to see if there were any sings of were the dig site could be, he and his minions walked along the forests edge till just a bit away from Nordberg's sentry's sight, one of the minions pulled at his legs and growled in a low voice

"Master shinnies".

The Overlord look and saw a group of Empire foot soldiers guarding a mountain pass, he then saw some rail tracks under their feet and he could just make out a broken mine cart behind them. This was it that pass would lead to the dig site as he was getting his minions ready a man in golden armor came up to them and shouted

"Stand up straight from ranks come look lively are you Empire men or Gnomes" at this the troops formed up and looked ready for anything, not that they were expecting anything but it seamed like the golden one was in-charge.

 _"Hmm like minions the brains of these humans seam easy to manipulate their leader is the key take him out and they will fall into panic sire,"_ Gnarl advised.

"Any suggestions?" asked the Overlord

 _"Well sire humans can't stand to see other humans on fire, something about the smell"_ Gnarl said confused why someone would hate the smell of burning humans.

The troops guarding the dig site were not in a good mood, they had to work on mid-winter eve and their centurion was taking it out on them since he was stuck here to unable to get with the drunken girls in town. As the centurion was shouting orders out of nowhere he burst in to flames. As he fell to the floor others in the troop burst into flames this coursed the others to panic and break formation, as they did a black demon and his brown friends charged at them slicing them to ribbons. Those that weren't cut open were burned alive by some red things in the woods. When all the troops were dead all that could be heard was the giggling from the minions.

After looting the bodies of everything useful and sending the rest back to the Netherworld the Overlord and his horde made their way to the dig site. The dig site was a big hole in the ground with tracks for carts round the edge slowly crawling its way round the hole getting deeper as it went. The hole itself was about as deep as a large house with and upstairs and loads of boxes and tools were scatted around but no people were there, probably dreaming of the mid-winter's eve party thought the Overlord.

"Gnarl send Grubby out with some minion gates. I want this place searched for anything useful." Ordered the Overlord

 _"Of course sire," answered_ the old minion.

A few moments later a red and brown minion gate appeared beside the overlord, who quickly called lots of minions to loot the place. As the rest of the minions were running around the site a few Reds came up to the lord and pulled on his legs to get him to follow them. The minions led him to a shed with lots of red barrels with a big black E painted on them.

 _"I suspect that your Reds and those explosive barrels with get on like a house on fire or a solider on fire hehe"_ Giggled Gnarl _"if we can get them into some mine carts we can use them for some selective destruction lord."_

"Yes Gnarl, I bet that door to Nordberg will look lovely with these next to it." replied the Overlord "Browns load these on to as many mine carts you can find and get them ready to go to Nordberg, Reds you stand back I don't want any to go off before its time. Gnarl bring the wolves and any minions that I haven't got with me that a skilled at riding them and have the saddles and weapons been finished?"

 _"Yes of course dark one, the forge has been busy, I will send everything up to you right away"_ said Gnarl the excitement building in his voice.

The minions jumped straight to their new tasks of getting everything ready, the wolves arrive just as the last mine cart was loaded and were soon fitted out with the new saddles and their minion riders. Just as the sun was starting to rise over the horizon the Red and Brown leaders approached the Overlord,

"Browns ready Masta" Said Gloob, "Reds read" said Blaze

The Overlord looked at his horde, he had 3 units of minions set up, the Reds ready to set the barrels alight and then anyone who got in his way, wolf riding browns and some browns that would push the mine carts to Nordberg then become foot soldiers' afterword's. He stepped towards the path that lead away from the dig site calling all the horde to attention, lots of glowing eyes looked at him each one filled with mischief and hunger for the fight to begin.

"Okay boys! Lets give Nordberg our own Mid-winter's Eve present!" he shouted, the minions cheered and growled in approval as they all set off towards the awakening town.

Kelda was doing her morning task of cleaning, picturing Borius' face as she scrubbed, when a huge explosion shuck the building and knocking her on the floor. As she was getting up a solider rushed in and went straight to Borius' room, wondering what was happening she followed him. Soon after entering the solider rushed back out followed by a scantily clad slave girl, who spotted Kelda standing there and went over to her.

"Kelda, the governor wants you." The slave girl said she started to walk way Kelda grabbed her arm.

"What's happening? Come on you were in there!" Kelda asked eager to know what's going on.

"Some barbarian is attacking the town and on Mid-Winters Eve to, they truly have no class do they" she answered looking at Kelda like she wanted her to agree with her.

"They sound fun," Kelda said wondering if she could sneak out to see the blood shed, deciding she couldn't get out unseen she headed to Borius' room, ignoring the disgusted look on the other girls face. As she entered his room she did her best to breath through her mouth, to avoid the smell of rotting food and sweat. Looking round the room she saw the leftovers form his midnight meal covering his bed and the blob of fat him self sat on the edge of the same bad waiting for her.

"There you are slave come and help me to the bath. I must get ready of the festive tonight" said Borius his many chins wobbling.

"What about the attack?" she asked as she heaved him up and held him as he waddled towards the bath.

"Oh its just some barbarian they will be dealt with soon," he replied not a hint of worry in his voice "I really can't understand way they are attacking. I mean the Empire has given you lot peace, culture, refinement and a purpose in life to serve us. I mean what more could you ask for?"

Before Kelda could reply with something that could get her whipped the bedroom door burst open and Lieutenant Darius came charging in a panicked look in his eyes, his face pale and sweat poring from him,

"Sir! The invaders have broken through and are making their way towards the temple on the hill" he stammered

"For Heaven's sake its only a few barbarians!" snapped Borius

"Their not barbarians sir, its a horde of...of d..Demons." stuttered Darius

Both Kelda and Borius looked at the man with skepticism in their eyes. Borius rolled his eyes and said "Don't be daft man! Slave take me to the baths"

"But sir, we need you!" Darius said looking frantic

"So no time for a bathe then?" He asked, Kelda couldn't believe her ears demons might be attacking the town and the fat-so wanted to bathe.

"Sir please!" pleaded the lieutenant

"Fine! Slave help me get dressed" Borius grunted, Kelda dropped his arm and started to help him into his toga trying not to touch him, as she was dressing him Borius kept mumbling "Can't get the staff, superstitious simpleton its just some costume!"

Fully dressed Borius, Darius and Kelda walked out the front and were hit with the smell of burning and blood, the air felt charged with electricity. Kelda look towards the battle to try and see what was going on, in-between some of the houses she saw a giant man in black armor cutting down everyone that got in his way and surrounding him were brown and red demon that looked very familiar to her. Borius had seen this to as he had gone white and broken out in a flop sweat,

"Demon! Their are demon"

"I did say sir," said Darius "now what are your orders sir?"

"Slave pack my things I'm leaving!" Borius shouted

"Sir you can't leave we need you," stuttered Darius as he looked at fat man who looked like he was going to faint.

"But I must inform the Emperor" shouted Borius

The invading army had made it to the temple and the big man in the dark armor was looking down at them. Kelda looked up at him, she couldn't see his face but his eyes were glowing _'it cant be'_ she thought she tried to get a better look at the demons with him to see if they were what she saw that day 13 years ago. Borius shouting up at the man interrupted her thoughts,

"You have ruined my Mid-Winter's Eve! We will see what Emperor Solarius has to say about this!"

The man just continued to look down at them. Suddenly there was a bright blue light behind her and a man in a red and white toga was standing there. He was skinny and tall, his face was angular with a pointy nose, his eyes were sunken in and he had a monocle over his right eye. He had grown his hair out the back but was losing it in the front. He looked down his nose at the three of them and spoke in nasally voice

"Borius!"

"Marius, my brother where did you suddenly come from?" asked Borius shocked at his brother's sudden entrance,

"Emperor Solarius is quite concerned brother that you allowed Nordberg to be most violently raided by a magical barbarian." Marius said with distain in his voice.

"Err...the situation is under control Marius." Borius stammered, "My men are rooting out the source" he looked at Darius who looked back blankly after a beat he clicked they were talking about him. He saluted and ran off to join the fight.

"Well they better had do. You where sent here to prove yourself as a governor and show you have a back bone beneath that blubber!" scoffed Marius

"He hasn't," chuckled Kelda "it's blubber all the way through." The man looking down seamed to be looking at her like he was trying to figure out who she was, which made her hope she was right in her guess of who he was, the man then turned to the temple and started to destroy it.

After her comment Marius looked at her down his nose as if she was an animal that learned to talk,

"That one needs more whipping" Marius said

"Yes but I can't find any one who will do it" Borius explained

"Then do it your self, you blubbery fool," snapped Marius

 _'I would like to see him try'_ thought Kelda, she turned her attention back to the fight in the distance and was just in time to see Darius be set on fire then cut in half, she chuckled at that. The man and his horde made their way to the town center when Borius' voice brought her back to the bickering brothers,

"Crush him, crush him its almost time for my lunch time bath!" Borius shouted at the remaining soldiers

"Honestly Borius I thought you could handle Governorship of one tiny town" sighed Marius

"This is my town and I am not at home to Demon!" Borius snapped back. The two men were to busy auguring to notice that the sounds of fighting were fading away, Kelda kept trying to see if she could catch another glimpse of this man to confirm her thoughts on who he was.

"Marius it was you wasn't it? You sent me here didn't you?" said Borius

"I don't know what you mean Borius"

"You did just because you knew Solarius favored me!"

"You big blubbery fool no wonder mama left!" snapped Marius, Kelda raised her eye brows at that _'wow we are ruled by children that's great to know'_ she thought

"Don't you bring mama into this," shouted Borius "That's it I not speaking to you!"

"Fine" replied Marius

Now the noise from the fighting had completely stop Kelda looked around then heard the sound of grating stone above her. She looked and the giant statue of Borius was moving over the edge of the house she ran out the way, Marius saw her and looked up as the statue fell and jump out the way. Borius wasn't so lucky he got crushed and caught under one of the statues fat arms. Kelda looked back to where the statue had been place and saw the man in the armor and his demons up close and clearly for the first time. _'It's him it really is him'_ she thought. A feeling of joy and happiness washed over her, he was alive and she was free form being a slave.

"Witch-boy? Witch-boy is it really you?" she shouted up to the armored man. He looked at her his eyes glowing; she wondered if he recognized her, "You came back!" The man and his demons, Minions she remembered, started to walk down towards her and the statue "Get me out of here before he makes me start scrubbing again" she laughed, some thing flashed in his eyes, was it a smile she thought. By now Marius had recovered and was shaking with rage,

"How dare you!" he shouted "You have insulted the Emperor and my family! This will not go unpunished!"

The man looked at Marius and took a set towards him, making Marius go pale and vanish in a blue light. The man shrugged and turned towards the statue and Kelda again

"Slave!" Borius' voice suddenly cried out "Slave get me out of here at once!"

"No," replied Kelda _'how is he still alive'_ she thought, "No way even your crevices have crevices" Her heart was soaring.

The man now stud over Borius looking at the trapped man, Borius extended a quivering hand towards him pleading

"I..I surrender maybe we can make a de...ugh!" Borius never got to finish as the armored worrier swung his axe down cleaving Borius' head in to he then ordered the minions to destroy the statue, it took them less then a minute to get rid of it. He walked to the platform in front of the villa where Borius made speeches from,

"Nordberg!" he shouted, sending shivers down Kelda's spine, "I am the Overlord! I am your new lord and master! You are mine!"

The town look at him with fear in their eyes, _'They recognize him to'_ she thought, one by one they all kneeled looking down at the floor. The Overlord stepped down from the platform and walked to Kelda and stopped in front of her. She looked up at him and into his eyes, she reached out to touch him but stop before making contact and pulled her hand away.

"It's really you," she said, "they said you had died, drowned in ice water, but I guess they were wrong."

"Kelda?" the Overlord asked

"Yes," She said tears of joy coming to her eyes "How come you didn't let me know you were alive?"

"It was complicated and It's a long story." He replied

"Take me with you" she asked as she reached out and grabbed his arm "I want to go with you"

"You want to come with me as a conquer the world? What about Your family?" He asked

"They passed away years ago" she answered "and that sounds fun, I want to see parts of the world that aren't covered in snow"

The ground started to shake then a huge claw burst from the ground destroying most of Borius' villa, then opened up into a gate.

"What's that?" asked Kelda looking form it to her Witch-boy.

"It's a magic gate that leads to the Netherworld, my home." answered the Overlord

Kelda smiled up at him, linked her arm with his and walked to the portal and her new life with the Overlord.


End file.
